BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”

[Rktpwrd]

On the subject of bump stops.

Where are you putting the rear bump stop(s)? The stock center location is now in direct line with my 9" Yoke/U-Joint. I'm thinking of doing one on each side of the rear frame rails above the axel tubes. I wanted to see how you were doing yours.

Hutch

Hutch, I’m running a narrowed 12 bolt posi with 3:73 gears and Moser axles originally from a Chevelle in mine. After I had it narrowed I welded the original G body lower control arm mounts onto this housing. Those brackets incorporate the factory bump stop locations, so it all still works like stock.

I’ve cut down the bump stops considerably as you can see in these pics (a little too much unfortunately, the reason I just got new ones), but as you can see they still contact the frame in the proper location.

As for the pinion snubber, it’s still in the stock location as well, I just cleaned and modified it a little for my needs. In this picture the car is fully aired down and the pinion/yoke is as close to the snubber as it’s ever going to get.

I’m assuming that maybe your 9” has a bigger nose/pinion on it that’s preventing you from using the stock snubber? Or maybe your rear suspension geometry is a little different than mine when I’m fully aired down.

 

[oldsofb]

Ahhh. I've got none of that. The 9" center section is shorter so the snubber would make contact at the back of the pinion yoke (stationary things and spinny things don't play well).

I may get a set of center snubbers and bolt them to the frame over the tubes and see how that works. Thanks for the reply.

Hutch

 

[Rktpwrd]

Ahhh. I've got none of that. The 9" center section is shorter so the snubber would make contact at the back of the pinion yoke (stationary things and spinny things don't play well).

I may get a set of center snubbers and bolt them to the frame over the tubes and see how that works. Thanks for the reply.

Hutch

No problem sir.
I would say if you’re going to go that route, try and get some that are at least close to the stock height. I just measured the brand new ones I have here, and they’re 1 9/16” tall. Hopefully you can find some in that ballpark(ish).

 

[Rktpwrd]

Haven’t posted any updates in a hot minute, but progress has been moving forward. Albeit a little slowly. Since I last updated, a lot has happened so sit down, strap in and hang on for the ride.

I received the emergency brake handle and kit about a month ago, and it’s everything I imagined it would be. No pictures of it yet as I’ve only taken it out of the box to inspect and assemble some of its’ components, but I’ll post some up when I get to the install of it. But so far, and overall I’m happy with the purchase and feel it’s going to work well.

While I was waiting for that to be delivered, I started moving on to the next phase of the floor project, and it’s the biggest and most complicated. To refresh everyone’s memory, several years ago I had started to fabricate and install exhaust housing tubes for the side exit exhaust to go through:

During the hiatus from The Juggernaut working on Olds Cool, I had thoroughly decided that I wasn’t real happy with this and it didn’t fit the vision or direction I wanted to go with it. So it was time to go back to the drawing board and start fresh. That began with pulling out the exhaust system, dusting it off, and assembling it on the floor in preparation to get reinstalled.

Haven’t seen this assembled and in the light of day for a while!

I began the transformation by cutting out all the work on the passenger side that had already been done. Cut off/out the goofy exhaust pass-through tube, and exposed part of the rear floor crossmember:

Next was to remove the very end of the crossmember and the body mount underneath it.

From there, I finally had good access to cut out and weld in an “inner wall” and weld the now much shorter exhaust pass-through to it:

This is going to be the full length of the pass-throughs now, from the outer quarter panel to this new “wall” I just created. So how in the hell is this going to work now you ask? Stay tuned to find out.

The whole new rear floor has to be based around the crossmember, so that became the next area of focus. I whipped up what was to become the first of several new crossmember pieces on my metal brake…

…then proceeded to bolt the exhaust system back up. I still had these cut down pieces of masking tape rolls that I had specifically made to keep the pipes centered in the openings while fabricating, so they got pressed back into service once again:

With the tail pipe section in place, I could start determining if I had the necessary clearance to create a new body mount pedestal. I did this with a scrap piece of stainless tubing I had left over, and you can see that I do:

Next I had to take my newly fabricated crossmember piece and start mocking it up to figure out what had to happen. But first, I made an end for it and welded that on.

Next was to determine the centerline of the original crossmember and transcribe it onto the wall. The height at which it had to be was pretty easy to figure out, it was just simply as low as possible. The sharp-eyed among you out there that knows these cars will also notice that my new crossmember piece is quite a bit less tall than the original. That’s simply to keep the kick up portion of the new floor as low as possible since it sits directly over top of the tail pipe.

Once I had the centerline figured out, I temporarily attached the new crossmember to the inner wall with some Cleco’s.

Now obviously I don’t want the entire rear floor section to be this height, that would look ridiculous and be really hard to incorporate into the existing floor. So it was time to start figuring out what the shape the new crossmember (and ultimately the floor) would be.

Laid out some cut lines for reliefs…

Then started conforming it into a bend.

The downward bends were easy to create, the gaps expand as it’s bent. Just get the bend radius you want, then tack weld the gaps to keep the shape.

The upward bends however were quite a bit more tricky to do. The opposite has to be done, create gaps in the sides for the metal to close in on itself:

Using this method, I next proceeded to create several more pieces to make up the rest of the new crossmember.

Out of room for anymore pictures in this post, continued >>>

 

[Rktpwrd]

Lots of test fitting, mock-ups and measuring, but it was starting to take shape…

Once I had the basic shape and heights established that I wanted everything at, it was time to get all the gaps closed up and welded together. This was an EXTREMELY laborious and time consuming task, it took me nearly 3 weeks to complete. At first I couldn’t figure out why, but after doing the math on it, it all made sense.

Every bend has to be welded back together in 2 sections: The side first to preserve the shape, then the flange. So with 4 crossmember pieces each having 2 bends in them each, that was 8 bends. Each bend has 2 sides, so now we’re up to 16 sections, plus the flanges, so times another 2.

That’s THIRTY TWO sections to weld in, not including the joints between each of the pieces!

Here’s how the process for each section went:

First, the gaps in the inside bends had to be welded up…

…then the inside corner cleaned up with the cutoff wheel:

Once the corner was done, then the face could be dressed:

Next was to cut out the “fingers” on the flange and make a curved piece to fit.

Then, burn it in, dress it out, and move onto the next.

THIRTY TWO TIMES!!! It literally took forever.

Anyways, I digress. After a while, I was finally getting the sections completed and ready to go:

Once I finally had all the sections done, it was time to start trimming them down to size and joining them together. I made a couple of little bridge insert pieces to add strength to the joints…

….then clamped them into place and burned them in with some rosette welds.

I used a long piece of heavy duty 1x1 square tubing as my fixture to make sure everything joined together flat, straight and true.

Damn if it wasn’t actually starting to look like something now!

I got 3 of the 4 sections welded together and metal finished out, but I purposely left the 4th section long and unattached. Just in case the lengths were unequal side to side. It wouldn’t take much of a discrepancy to have it not fit properly.

So that meant the next step was to create and weld in the inner wall on the driver’s side. That had to start by digging out the driver’s side pass-through and getting it Cleco’d in place too:

I spent an entire evening just cleaning up the pass-through and making the inner wall section for the driver’s side. Then the tubing had to be marked and cut down to match the wall.

And that’s pretty much where I’m at now. I don’t have any pictures of it yet, but the driver’s side inner wall has been fully welded in and ground flush, and the crossmember has been started on finalizing and getting positioned. It may not be terribly exciting for you, but it’s a mini milestone for me and I’m REALLY looking forward to the next steps.

Sorry for the long posts and all the pictures, but I was waaay behind on getting y’all up to date on this.

D.

 

[JAMCAR223]

Amazingly well thought out, and executed! 👍 👍

 

[motorheadmike]

1. I could have just put the exhaust out through the holes in my lower quarters?; and

2. We are allowed to use flanged edges to insert patches?

 

[Rktpwrd]

1. I could have just put the exhaust out through the holes in my lower quarters?; and

2. We are allowed to use flanged edges to insert patches?

1. Sure, if you were running 1 1/4” peashooter exhaust. There’s literally no room to run exhaust through the body like I did without going through the floor and up and over or under the frame. You’d have to have tiny little exhaust to squeeze it through the gap between the body and frame.

When I first considered doing this mod I was just going to drill a large hole through the frame, sleeve it, and run the exhaust through that, except you can’t even do that because the body mount is in the way.

2. Yes, but I only use that method in certain instances. The pass-through pieces are one of them. I’m using heavier gauge metal in these pieces than factory to provide strength and heat resistance (because pass-through), so it was easier for me to flange the insides of the holes in the quarters and have something to lay the pieces on. I’m not a fan of this method because it provides a perfect breeding ground for rust in between two pieces of metal.
I’d rather butt weld sections together even though it’s a bit more work.

If you choose to go the flange route, just make sure your flanges are well protected with epoxy primer or some such other corrosion deterrent. That’s exactly what I’ll be doing when the time comes.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Amazingly well thought out, and executed! 👍 👍

Thanks James!

 

[Rktpwrd]

1. I could have just put the exhaust out through the holes in my lower quarters?; and

2. We are allowed to use flanged edges to insert patches?

Oh, forgot to mention, you lose the use of the factory seat belt boxes this way too. Not a big deal for me because I’m using Corbeau harnesses anyways.